Wrexham & Shropshire, Part 1

After a long gestation period of behind the scenes legalities under the Open Access regulations, the Wrexham, Shropshire & Marylebone Railway started crew training operations in February 2008. These operations involved training on both traction and route knowledge, initially in two separate areas - Banbury to Marylebone and Wolverhampton to Wrexham. These are pictures from the Banbury to Marylebone section taken during the initial period up to introduction of the actual services in April 2008. Further training runs took place around the Birmingham area using a Class 121 "bubblecar" as the WSMR trains were likely to use any of the several routes available, though "moderation of competition" rules meant that restrictions on station stops precluded potentially lucrative custom from this area. Further pictures will be added in more collections covering the development of the railway, which became one of the most popular services in the country in terms of customer satisfaction, followed by its premature demise for reasons too complex to go into here...

This was the first run of the down morning Wrexham training trip, 5Z10, the 10:17 Marylebone to Banbury train, three coaches topped and tailed by 67016 and 67017. It is seen here from a public footpath across the line near Kingsey, running on time at 11:03 on Tuesday 26th February 2008. Digital Image No. IMGP3918.